


A Bite For A Bite

by Firadania



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Apocalypse, M/M, Mavin, Zombies, achievement hunter - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-02
Updated: 2014-05-20
Packaged: 2018-01-21 15:16:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 13,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1554935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Firadania/pseuds/Firadania
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael Jones is working on a cure for cancer and the company's pushing him for it. Yet under all the pressure, he still finds the time to save a mugged boy. Gavin seems adamant that the cure is a lie, but how can Michael waste all the research? (adding gv trigger for Gavin's injury and later chapters)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Michael thought of himself as a normal enough guy, or at least that was what he told himself every morning after pulling on his compulsory work jacket and drying his auburn curls. There was the fact that he worked for Rosterdent Corporation, one of the largest vaccinating companies, but he was only a test scientist there and that meant that he wasn't that important, there were probably a lot more important jobs.  
And yet his friends insisted on making a big deal about it to every single girl that he had tried to go out with, which they had seemed interested in at first; then he gradually realized that it wasn't his work that pushed them away, but just that they didn't think that he was attractive. At first he got hurt by that, but eventually he got used to it and instead built up an angry wall between him and the rest of the world.  
Now the only thing that he focused on was his work, and and he did what society demanded of him; going out with his friends occasionally for drinks, talking to his co-workers, spending time outside of work to explore the town. He would rather be inside swearing at a video game most of the time rather than be outside, but that was life.  
And it was decided that one morning wasn't going to be normal like all of the others.  
***  
He was rummaging through his closet looking for a decent set of clothes to wear that day, hair dripping water onto the carpet from his shower a few minutes earlier. Hopefully, today wasn't going to be as busy as it usually was, considering that he had had a late night out with Ray and Geoff and now his head was pounding like a hammer was beating against his skull over and over; maybe it would have been better if he hadn't gone to such a raging party and drunk his weight in alcohol.  
Michael pulled out a pair of light, casual jeans and a Halo t-shirt as well as a pair of dark boxers that were identical to every other pair in the closet. After he dressed in these, he quickly yanked on a pair of socks, slid on his glasses and checked his watch; shit, he was going to be late if he didn't hurry up. The man rushed into the lounge to pull on his backpack and work jacket, double checking that he had everything that he needed for the day before lacing up his sneakers and locking his apartment door behind him.  
He began to speed-walk to the elevator at the end of the hallway, praying for the doors to open before he got there; they didn't, and he had to impatiently tap his foot after pushing the up button, waiting and waiting and waiting. The metal doors slid apart and Michael almost rushed straight into someone coming out of the lift, who he apologized to quickly before pressing the ground floor.  
He was tempted to take the easy way out and simply drive to work, like he used to, but he had made a New Year's Resolution to save money on a gym membership and instead start walking to work. Besides, there was really no point in driving when his workplace was only a few blocks away; basically a huge waste of gas.  
Once he had reached the base floor, Michael headed out through the lobby and into the sunshine, though the pavement was still slick with the early morning rain. He breathed in the damp scent of it deeply and happily; he'd always liked rain better than any other type of weather, maybe because when he could hear the droplets pattering on his window, he could take a moment out of his real life and relax.   
Also on the wind was the smell of coffee, most likely from the coffee shop two blocks away called 'Mocha Hut'. It was a small cafe that mainly housed campus students from the university a few blocks away, meaning that its creamy interior of oak tables were always packed. However, Michael knew that most students weren't up this early in the morning so he was free to go there and get a coffee before work.  
The sun finally broke from the clouds to bounce sun rays off the drizzly streets and shops as he entered the cafe and quickly checked his watch again; he'd have just enough time.  
"Hey Lindsay," he greeted the girl at the register, who he saw here regularly, and she waved at him cheerily. "The usual expresso, double shot with sugar, thanks."   
"Sure thing." She rushed a little to make his order, making him grin to see how she bustled around the small area. Lindsay was a nice girl, she sometimes came over to his house to play videogames or went out on the town with him when no-one else wanted to, but he was determined for them to stay just friends.  
"Oh, and a croissant as well, if that's okay," he added quickly.  
"Ah, oui oui monsieur. Chocolat ou plein?" she joked with her fake French accent to make him laugh.  
"Chocolate's fine, faggot." She grinned as she slid the paper bag and his coffee across the counter towards him; he paid her the correct amount and was about to leave when she called him back.  
"Hey Michael, do you want to come over to my house for a round of Halo?" Michael paused, even though he would usually have said yes straight away to her invitation.  
"I can't tonight. Another time."  
"Okay then, you better not cancel on me next time though!" The man waved before striding out of the shop, not turning to see the disappointed look on her face.  
And then he was back on his way to work, not as angry as usual for once as he sidestepped the other strangers on their way to work or to meet their friends. Checking his watch and seeing that he might be late for the first testing, he turned down one of the side alleys that he had taken a few times before and knew was safe. Well, he was less likely to get stabbed here than in Jersey, anyway.  
Humming one of the songs that he’d heard repeatedly last night, he almost didn’t notice the hoarse, British voice that was calling out for help a few feet ahead of him. Hell, it wasn’t until a weak hand was tugging at his jacket that he jumped and turned around with his fists raised. But it wasn’t a fight that the stranger was looking for.  
“A l-little help..?” they managed to mumble, one arm hanging limply beside them on the ground and the other pressed tightly to their ribs. It was a man, as far as Michael could tell, younger than him but he was in a pretty mangy state.  
“Shit dude, are you bleeding?” The scientist quickly dropped his coffee and food onto the ground as he crouched beside the man, heart beating fast at the fact that he might have to save his life. The man’s clothes were hanging in rags, barely a couple of seams holding together his shirt and his jeans were getting holey around the knees. His hair, ruffled and dirty, looked like it was supposed to be bronze but at the moment it was just a dirt-brown.  
“Yeah, might be.” Michael rolled his eyes at the reply; obviously you would know if you were losing enough blood to die, that was just stupid. Realizing that they were in a dire situation, he pulled out his cell phone and dialled 911, waiting impatiently for someone to pick up.  
“911, what’s your emergency?” asked a calm and collected clerk on the other side of the line.  
“Uh, my friend’s been stabbed or shot, I don’t know, I wasn’t here when it happened.” He looked worriedly down at the stranger, whose name he still didn’t know. “It’s an emergency, so can you bring an ambulance right about now?”  
“Okay, tell me your address and we’ll be there as quickly as possible.” Michael rattled off the address as fast as he could, making sure that the man kept his hand pressed tight against the wound in his stomach so that his fucking intestines didn’t try to escape.  
“And your name is...?” Why the fuck did it matter what his name was, there was someone dying here!  
“Michael, now hurry the fuck up!” He hung up with a huff and went back to looking at the stranger, who was beginning to go a bit too pale for his liking. “Can you tell me what your name is?”   
“Gavin,” the man whispered it, barely loud enough for the scientist to hear, obviously putting all of the energy he had into making words.  
“Hey hey, ease up. Try to keep pressure on that, alright?” Gavin looked like he was going to pass out at any instance, and Michael frowned worriedly. “Here, use this.” He pulled off his jacket, wincing as he pushed the white lab coat against his stomach and watched it blemish with a huge dark stain of crimson.  
Sirens were beginning to sound in the distance already, thank fucking God for that, but Michael knew better than to try and make the man stand up and start walking. “Come on, keep your eyes open for a minute longer...”  
Then the paramedics were rushing down the alleyway towards them, and he was being pushed out of the way as they checked his pulse and picked him up to put him on the gurney. As they started to roll him away, the scientist fast-walked to catch up. “Hey, I need to come with him. He’s, well, a friend, and I have to help, if I can.” They looked him up and down, checking what must have been a worried look on his face, and nodded at him.  
“There’s a seat in the ambulance that’s free. Is he your boyfriend or...?”   
“Of course not!” Michael protested, face flushing red. “We’re just friends, that’s all.” The paramedics exchange knowing glances while he looks on confusedly, muttering, “Fucking assholes,” under his breath and gesturing for them to move their asses and put the gurney in the ambulance already.  
It was a long, boring trip that was mainly bumpy and altogether cramped as shit, to his eyes, and he found it difficult to make conversation with the other paramedics since they were trying to save Gavin’s life. And he couldn’t joke about the gaping hole that was staring them all in the face or talk about how the weather was improving.  
So he sat there in silence while the paramedics did their job and tried to fix Gavin up with what they had in the ambulance, making sure that he wouldn’t die before they got to the hospital.   
“Come on, Gavin,” he whispered to himself, clenching his hands into fists so tightly that the knuckles turned white and his nails started to bite into his palms. How was it that he cared so much about a man who would have died in a back alley if not for him? Was it a sense of responsibility? Or was it the hope that he had seen in Gavin’s eyes?  
Either way, he was close to tearing up and punching one of the paramedics then shouting at them. Why the fuck did they look so worried for? Gavin was fine, he was fine, everyone was fucking fine, no-one was going to die, no way.  
By the time that they arrived at the hospital, the man on the gurney was barely breathing, his chest stationary if you didn’t focus on it. Michael leapt out of the ambulance and out of the way.  
Although he felt stupid doing so, he fast-walked beside the gurney to keep up, pushing away the worried medics hands that were pushing him back. Why wasn’t he allowed to go further than the emergency double doors? He thought this to himself as security blocked his way into the emergency wards, frowning and swearing at them that he was a fucking scientist, he’d studied medicine in university, it was better than nothing.  
And yet he still ended up in the large waiting room with all the other worried family members in this goddamn hospital. His nostrils were stuffed with the smell of sterile air freshener and pure sickness; fuck, how did doctors put up with that smell every day?  
Gavin, Gavin, Gavin. Michael ran the name through his mind again and again just to make sure that he hadn’t made up the man in the alley, that he wasn’t having a fit from working over-time. A nurse came up to him and asked if he was injured or in need of immediate medical attention. When he said no, she pursed her lips like his old principal in elementary and told him to go somewhere else. He asked where; she pointed to a sign and muttered about ‘another waiting room’. This day was just getting worse and worse.  
He left like he was told to, following the sign down another few hallways to an almost empty waiting room. He wasn’t all that surprised by that; his company was an old man who was snoring loudly in an armchair, a kid reading a MLP comic and his mother who was staring blankly at a wall. He took a seat and started doing the same thing, feeling numb.  
Michael hated hospitals, always had and probably always would. People had died in this place, and the staff were still making the beds with those same sheets that people had died on. It wasn’t the germ factor, it was more so the spiritual side. It wasn’t right for people to be cooped up in a building and told that the doctors are doing everything that they can when really, they can’t. It was wrong for them to give out hope when there wasn’t any.   
And yet, he still refused to leave the waiting room with all it’s bad air freshener and sickness. He couldn’t leave Gavin behind in an unfamiliar place. He felt protective over the man already.   
He closed his eyes and tried to block out the calls of nurses in the halls and the sound of wheels rolling over the tiled floors, sighing and breathing in and out through his mouth.


	2. Chapter 2

When he woke up, he was alone in the room and when he checked his phone, it said 12. Fuck, he must have slept for a couple of hours at least. Michael stood up from his seat, stretching his arms up to the sky and yawning. He wandered in the direction that he had first come from, looking for an information desk of some sort.  
The scientist ended up running into a helpful nurse, who guided him along the right paths. He thanked her and she smiled, rushing away to help other patients.  
“Is Gavin Free out of the emergency ward?” he asked the receptionist abruptly, cleaning his glasses on the hem of his shirt. “You know, the guy with a huge hole in his stomach bleeding to death?” She glared at him, making a shushing gesture and whispering,  
“There are children here, they don’t need to hear the gory details.” He only shrugged and asked about Gavin again, more insistently this time. “Yes, he’s in Ward C, room number 13. Try not to stress the rest of his life out of him, alright?” He was gone before she could finish her sentence. She frowned and shook her head, going back to work.  
Ward C was a lot cheerier than the waiting and emergency rooms that he had seen, covered in blue and yellow that was hinting on gaudy; was Gavin staying in a children’s ward? He smirked at the thought. As he neared room 13, he could hear laughing and giggling, making him walk faster. Michael paused in the doorway.  
“See, now I’m a walrus!” Gavin had straws sticking out of his mouth and he made seal noises at the child in the neighbouring bed across from him. The kid started giggling again, and Michael smiled as he knocked on the door. The man looked up from his fun and dropped the straws out of his mouth into his lap. “You stayed.” The scientist nodded, pulling the one chair in the room up to Gavin’s hospital bed and crossing his arms.  
“Did they treat you okay?”   
“Yeah, alright enough.” The patient had had a wash, his hair combed in a spiky mess and his skin a dusky shade of brown, though he still seemed pale. His eyes were a bright blue again, energised by his jokes with the kid in his room, and Jesus Christ, his nose. Gavin looked at him curiously when he started to laugh. “What? What is it?” Michael shook his head.  
“Don’t worry about it. They stitched up your stomach hole, right?” he asked; a memory flashed of his lab coat soaked in scarlet and he shivered.   
“Yeah. Did you really wait here all this time to see me?” Gavin looked him over while he waited for an answer. When Michael agreed, the man grinned. “Thanks. It means a lot.”  
“No problem.” The scientist looked over to the kid in the room, who was watching them but picked up a book and pretended to read he had been noticed. “Why’d they put you in the kiddy ward anyway?” Gavin frowned.  
“It’s a ward for people with ‘traumatic’ injuries,” he whispered, making him realize that he had an English accent. “I guess that they thought I’d be freaked out by my intestines, you know, hanging out where they shouldn’t be, but I don’t really mind.”  
“And the kid?”  
“Don’t ask,” he replied, picking at the edge of his blanket, and Michael complied. He looked around the room instead, noticing the bright decor and teddy bears; one of them was sitting on Gavin’s bedside table, covered in patches and swatches. “I never asked your name,” the man noted.  
“Michael Jones.” He held out his hand, but the Brit didn’t take it. Gavin gestured to him with both arms, grinning.  
“You saved my life, idiot. A handshake doesn’t thank you enough.” Michael stood up and leant over to give him a hug, doing so gingerly so he didn’t disturb the bandages hidden under the blankets. The man held onto him for awhile, face nuzzled into his shoulder so the scientist could feel and hear every breath that rattled through his chest. Eventually, he cleared his throat and pulled away back to the chair, face flushing red. “So, Michael, when do I get out of here?” he grinned happily, sitting up properly so his back rested against his plush cushions.  
“No idea. I thought your doctor would have told you about it,” Michael replied, shrugging his shoulders. “Is there something that you need to do? I can do it for you, you know, if you want me to.” Gavin dropped his eyes back down to the blanket, pulling at the threads once again. He started frowning, and the scientist could have sworn that he saw the corners of his eyes starting to tear up.  
“If I told you a secret, could you keep it between us?” He mumbled it almost to himself, Michael barely hearing him. “And… and if it wasn’t all that believable, would you still try to believe me?”  
“It depends on the secret, I guess. I can promise you that I can try, though,” he eventually replied, watching Gavin with concern; what had brought on the sudden nervousness? Anxiety? Worry?  
“I know that you work for a vaccine company, Rosterdent. It’s on your lab coat.” The Brit reached down the side of the bed to yank up his jacket, handing it back to Michael. It was clean, but unfortunately smelt like disinfectant; he tried not to wrinkle his nose. “I also worked on vaccines, except I created the formulas with a group of other scientists.” He drew in a shaky breath. “We mixed up the formulas, and there was no way for us to bring it back in time after we had sent it out. By now, it’s in over 35 countries, most probably being tested.”  
“So you made a boo-boo, what’s the big deal? It isn’t like anyone’s going to die… right?” Gavin’s eyes went wide with despair.  
“It’s much worse than that. We might have released a deadly mutation, one that would change us… for the worse.” Michael started frowning as he thought about it.  
“But we never test it on human subjects until we’re sure that it isn’t dangerous.”  
“Well, maybe the animals that you test it on will mutate, who knows? All I know is that that vaccine formula is dangerous and that it should never be used on any human being.” The man stared back up at him. “If I could ask for another huge favour, I want you to do whatever you can to stop that vaccine from mutating.” Michael nodded numbly, unable to think of anything to say. Gavin smiled thankfully. “Good. Now, do you think that you could sneak me a Snickers or something? The grog in here is mental.”  
“Ha, I’ll see what I can do.” A doctor walked into the room then, talking to the child in the room quietly. They watched him for awhile, not saying anything. Eventually he called in a nurse, who gave the boy his medication, and then the doctor wandered over to him.  
“Gavin Free, right?” He nodded. “How are the bandages and stitches holding up?” While Gavin was being asked questions, the scientist knotted his fingers together and stared at the floor.  
“Do you know when I can get out of this joint?” The doctor sighed.  
“It’s going to be a little while before we can let you out. Those stitches need to set, and we need to see what medication and home-care would be best for you. Until then… well, you’re going to be in here for another few weeks.” He paled considerably, huffing his breath out.  
“Oh.” The doctor looked to Michael for the first time.  
“You’ll always have your friend to keep you company, Gavin, I’m sure.” With that, he left them in the ward to go attend to the other people in the hospital. The scientist stood up, brushing the creases out of his jeans and picking up his lab coat to slide it on.  
“I think it would be best if I headed out now. I can drop into work and see if I can pull up the files before anyone gets to testing.” He checked his phone again. “I’ll have to be quick though. See you later.”  
“Hey Michael,” Gavin stopped him before he could walk out the door.  
“Hm?”  
“Are you going to come visit me sometime tomorrow?” he asked hopefully, twiddling with the teddy bear’s ears while he talked. The corner of Michael’s mouth tugged up into half a smile.  
“Sure, why not?”  
-  
He caught a taxi from the hospital to the company, not minding that it took awhile to get there because he could finally get a breath of fresh air. The day had decided to brighten up at last, and there wasn’t so much of a traffic build-up.  
On arrival at work, his boss yelled at him for being late, saying that he shouldn’t even have bothered coming in today. He wasn’t able to get anywhere near the test papers, so he ended up having to do real work with the vaccines and test subjects; Gavin hadn’t even told him which of them it was that was supposed to mutate, so he was slightly in the dark about that.   
Chris, one of his co-workers, invited him out to a night out with some of the others, but after the rager that Michael had had the other night plus the load from this morning, he decided to pass. Work went on as usual from then on, even though he felt like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders; the thought that the vaccine had gone to so many companies around the globe to be tested made him sick to his stomach.  
He left slightly earlier than usual, not putting in the usual extra work hours he normally did on the pretence that ‘he was getting a headache’. After a long walk home, he fell onto the couch with a groan and threw his glasses onto the table along with his backpack. His whole body felt exhausted after the long day that had dragged on and on till forever.  
Michael hoped that Gavin was still okay in the hospital, but he still had that kid to keep him company so everything should be fine. He smiled as he remembered the man acting like a walrus to make the boy laugh.  
But the same memory from earlier kept haunting him, repeating over and over; how the hell had the Brit ended up in that back alley with his chest torn to shreds? It had seemed more like an animal or a gang had attacked him then a single human being. The scientist pulled his lab coat closer around him, frowning still.  
What the hell had Gavin done to get mauled?  
After half an hour of drowsy thinking, he gave up and ordered Chinese food over the phone from a local place nearby. The people who worked there recognized him as a regular, considering how many times he went there in a month.  
But Michael still couldn’t stop thinking about the vaccine and how it might make the world worse as he opened his mixed container of rice, noodles and meat. Even the sight of his favourite T.V show, My Little Pony, couldn’t block out the thoughts, and eventually he got so frustrated that he just chucked his food in the fridge and fell into bed.  
Sleep came quickly enough.  
-  
“Yeah, we did it, boy!” He reached over to Gavin and ruffled his bronze hair as the victory screen flashed on the T.V, putting his other arm around the Brit’s shoulders. “You’re my boy, Gavin!”  
“You’re my boy, Michael,” the man replied hesitantly, making Michael realize his intense show of affection and he ended up pulling away quickly; it had just been the adrenaline rush of the win that had made him say that. They sat there awkwardly for a few moments until the scientist stood up to wander into the kitchen.  
“Do you want a cup of coffee, Gav?” He was already filling the jug and putting it on to boil as he waited for the Brit to answer. He was still waiting as he pulled out two mugs and set them on the bench preparedly. “Gavin?” Michael turned to get an answer, seeing the man leaning halfway across the counter and rocking on his elbows. His brow furrowed.  
“Tea would be top, thanks,” he replied, watching the scientist’s every move now.   
“Riiight, okay then.” He began looking through his cupboards for teabags, getting worried when he didn’t find them but finally relieved when he found them in the corner. “Anything else?” Gavin beckoned him over to the counter, Michael rolling his eyes as he did as he was asked.  
“I want you.” He cupped the man’s face and pulled him over the benchtop to kiss him, moving his lips gently as Michael’s eyes widened. He pulled away.  
“W-what do you think you’re doing?”  
“Kissing you,” Gavin claimed, like it was the simplest thing in the world. “Am I allowed to kiss you, Michael?”  
“I don’t usually… kiss guys.”  
“Well, there’s a first time for everything.” The Brit grinned smugly and walked around the counter to pull Michael back to him, sliding his arms around his waist and humming contentedly. After a few hesitant kisses, the scientist felt a lot more comfortable with Gavin. Hell, the idiot even managed to drag him to the couch.  
As the man straddled his hips dominantly, Michael was already reaching to pull their shirts off, groaning when Gavin started nibbling on the crook of his neck.  
“God, Gavin,” he sighed; the Brit’s lips felt like heaven on his boiling skin, and he felt the pressure on his groin more than before.  
“Do you like it when I bite you, Michael,” Gavin whispered, obviously enjoying this sense of power over him. “Do you like it when I tease you?” He began to unbutton the scientist’s pants, chuckling at his eagerness to get rid of them. When his lips collided with the Brit’s again, he took a leap of faith and slipped his hand under the hem of Gavin’s loose jeans and massaged the front of his boxers. “M-Michael,” he stuttered, breaking away to bite his bottom lip and arch his back; the sight was more than enough to make Michael hard. God, he loved it when the man moaned his name.  
“Say my name again,” he growled as he reached into his boxers to tease him.  
“Michael, please..” Gavin whimpered again. The scientist began to stroke his cock, just to hear the sounds that the Brit could make for him and only him.  
-  
He woke in a sweat, throwing the sheets off as the sudden heat from his dream rolled over him in real life, mainly to his crotch. Michael blushed, even though he was alone in his own apartment. Had he really got a hard-on for Gavin Free, his newest friend who he barely knew?  
The sounds washed over him again, throbbing in his ears as he slipped his hand down into his boxers. He almost felt guilty about it, until he remembered the Brit moaning his name.


	3. Chapter 3

Gavin woke up in the middle of the night suddenly, heart pounding and stomach burning up; at first he thought that it was his old injury giving him grief, but when he felt it through the bandages, it was cold to the touch. He peered around the room, checking that Sam was okay before falling back onto his pillows with a huff. What had brought on the burning sensation?  
Lying there, he realized that it was going to take a while for him to get back to sleep. He massaged his bandages to make the feeling go away, trying to breath in through his nose and out through his mouth.  
He started to think about Michael’s visit earlier that day. It was endearing that the man had waited hours upon hours to be allowed to visit Gavin, but then he supposed it was protocol when you saved someone’s life. He frowned. He couldn’t really remember what had happened for him to end up in the alleyway.   
He remembered the pain, a lot of it, and stumbling over a rubbish bin onto the ground, then running till he couldn’t anymore and blacking out. He barely remembered Michael finding and talking to him, though that was probably a side effect of extreme blood loss.  
As he was beginning to feel drowsy again, he pretended that the teddy bear he was cuddling was Michael, and immediately felt a lot safer. He turned onto his side and closed his eyes, smirking.  
-  
The dream was still heavy in his mind when morning came around, making him have a slightly colder shower than usual. He really didn’t know how he was going to face Gavin in the hospital that afternoon, already feeling his cheeks flare scarlet as he was getting dressed into fresh clothes.  
Still having some extra time after he checked his watch, he decided to chuck his 3DS into his bag so that he would have something to do in his lunch break at work and maybe beforehand. His lab coat was hanging over the back of the chair, and he chucked it over his arm as he locked his door and left the apartment.  
Michael decided not to stop in for a morning coffee and a conversation with Lindsay, going straight to work without any shortcuts this time. Hopefully his boss wouldn’t be waiting there for him and he could sneak out the mutating vaccine without being seen.  
The first floor was bustling with interns who had a million things to do before their employers showed up to work; he felt sad for them, having been in the position before, but he wasn’t exactly going to take their place. He brushed past the ones with panicked faces and ignored their worried phone calls to reach the elevators.   
Michael waved hello to one of the security guards who he knew personally and stepped inside the lift to travel to the underground facilities. That was one of the things that he liked about this company and working here; he got to work away from prying eyes and the CEOs, letting him work in peace. He swiped his ID card and pressed a couple of buttons.  
No elevator music played as it went down, thank God for that, and the doors opened to a long hallway and another set of security doors. They were pretty antsy about that here, but that was the case when you had a million-dollar corporation competing with others. After all, everyone wanted to be the one with the newest and greatest solutions because it led to money. It almost made him sick that some vaccine companies only wanted money and that they did it by pretending to care about saving the world.  
“Hey Joel,” he said to the man at the checkpoint window, nodding to him as he swiped his ID card again to open the double doors. “Anything new pop up in the shipments here lately?” Joel shrugged.  
“Sorry, not my division, kid. Try to steer clear of the boss though, something was stuck up his yesterday, so I wouldn’t put it past him to be the same today.” Michael thanked him for the advice with a heavy heart as he realized that his boss was already at work, so he probably couldn’t get into the formula files today. He stepped through the doors into the sterile work environment, all glass and fancy steelwork.   
“Michael!” He winced when he heard the loud voice and tried to shrink more into himself. “You left pretty early yesterday, asshole.” Although it was said in a joking way, there was an undertone of anger.  
“Yeah, I had some important stuff to do,” the scientist replied, watching his boss approach him from his office across the way.  
“Oh yeah? What about?” Michael felt like he was going to burst into a hot sweat under the questions.  
“My friend’s in the hospital, so I had to go check in on him and see if he’s okay.” The man nodded understandingly, his frown dropping. “I should really get to work, Burnie, there’s a lot to do today.”  
“Yeah, sure, no problem. Oh, you guys got in a couple of new vaccine formulas from the higher-ups last night, said that it was pretty important that you got to work on them ASAP.”  
“What are they for?” he risked the question, adjusting his backpack strap over his shoulder.  
“A biggie; cancer, apparently. Although, with all the failures that we’ve had over the years, I doubt that these ones are going to be a success.” Burnie looked away into the distance, frowning, and Michael swore that he saw his eyes glisten; it must have been the lighting because the man turned to him with a smile. “But hey, you never know, right? Get off to work.” He let out a quiet sigh of relief and headed for the lab, Burnie walking back to his office.  
No-one was inside, which was a plus, and he went straight for the back of the room, past all the scientific equipment towards a side door that led to the animal enclosures; it was a lot more humane than keeping them in cramped cages, but Michael still felt bad for them. He was just glad that they didn’t get the makeup and perfume division of testing; he shivered at the thought.  
He approached one of the furthest enclosures, waving hello at Snowball the rabbit and her companion, Jerry.  
“Hey, girl,” he cooed, reaching through the small opening near the floor to call her over and pull her into his arms. She’d been here since he’d joined the company, over 2 years ago, and he was glad that he got to see her everyday. Hell, Snowball was like his own personal pet, and he still liked to pet her even if the others teased him for being a softie. They could go fuck themselves.  
She wiggled her nose at him, sniffing for food, he guessed. “Let’s get you a carrot, eh?” He carried her to the food containers, setting her down on a counter to look through the fridge for the carrots. “Lucky last one, Snowball.” The rabbit began nibbling on it as he walked into the back room, searching for the new boxed shipments; they weren’t in there, which surprised Michael. Had someone been here late enough to receive the shipments and start working on them? He went back to Snowball, picking her up to cuddle her and stride back into the main room.  
“Hey Michael, you’re here early!” The ginger Jack, one of his fellow scientists in this division, greeted him cheerily as he himself wandered into the room. “Making up for all that lost time last night?”  
“Yeah, you could say that. Hey, did you stay late enough for the new shipments to arrive?”  
“Nah,” Jack replied with a shake of his head. “But I think that Ryan stayed in late, said that he was going to stay in because something of his got canceled?”  
“Then I guess he won’t be coming in early, then,” Michael mused, scratching Snowball’s ears. “That guy is a real machine though, so who knows.”  
“Hey, are we using Snowball today?” The scientist shrugged. “Well, I’d put her back before the others get her. They were in a pretty snarky mood last night, I doubt that they’re any better now.”  
By the time that Michael got back from putting her back in with Jerry, Miles had arrived and was already working on some fixes and changes in his and Brandon’s project; something about chicken pox, he thought. While he was waiting for Ryan to show up, he started working with Jack on what the majority of them had been focusing on yesterday. Lately, there had been an outbreak of osteoarthritis in the younger generation, so now they had to come up for a cure to it before any other company did; the usual competition.  
The others started to file in, most of them yawning and shuffling across the floor tiredly. Many of them had coffee in hand, or some other energy drink or food. It was probably what he looked like most work days.  
“Did you say hello to Snowball yet?” joked Caleb, who was heading to the side room to get out their first patients for the morning. Michael rolled his eyes and grinned, nodding.  
“Wouldn’t want her to be lonely. Do you think that we could let her have a day off, though? She seemed a bit tired when I held her.”  
“Sure, dude, I’ll do you a favour.” Just then, Ryan arrived, not as bleary-eyed as the others and seeming rather perky for someone who had probably only gotten a couple of hours sleep.  
“Ryan, over here!” Michael called him over to his workbench. “You stayed in late last night, were you the one who got the new vaccine shipments?”  
“Uh, yeah, I think so. I was working on something else at the time, though. Why?”  
“We’re all meant to be working on it today, but I needed to know where you put the boxes before I tell the others,” the scientist replied, dropping his pencil and papers to stand up. “Show me where you put them, we’ll get started.”  
They ended up finding them hidden under someone else’s desks, the small boxes blending in with the dark underside. Ryan scratched his head and wondered why he had left them there. “Alright guys, Burnie’s got us a new project!” The whole roomful of scientists groaned, most of them already being under pressure to reach deadlines as it was. “You’ll be happier when you hear what we’re going to do; we’re going to cure cancer.” The others were silently watching him. “I know that you guys are already working under enough stress, but this is important for the company, so I’m guessing that they’ll take it out of our paychecks if we don’t start working on it.”  
They all gathered around the center table, Michael opening the boxes while his heart beat fast; somehow, he was going to have to switch out a box or something, take a wild guess and what was the failed formula.   
But already the others were picking up separate research papers and looking at them, comparing with the others on some of the notes. He managed to slip one of the papers up his sleeve without anyone noticing, but it was going to be impossible to do anything else because Burnie was walking into the room.  
“So you guys have started working on it?” he asked the room, which had quieted down since the the door had thunk back into it’s frame.   
“Yeah, we’re having a look at it now. Was there something that you needed, Burnie?” The man shook his head, a confused look running across his face.  
“Why did I come in here?” he muttered to himself. He shook his head. “Look, don’t worry about it. Make sure that you get everything finished before the deadlines, okay?” And just like that, he left without another word, letting them breathe.  
“What was that about?” asked Brandon, still staring at the door confusedly and putting his paper back onto the table.  
“Don’t worry about it, man, we’ve got work to do.” Miles dragged him back to their own work bench and the chicken pox project. Michael scanned the scattered papers, not finding any problems with the ideas there. It all seemed pretty solid, so why did Gavin seem so sure that one of them was going to mutate? How did he know that Michael would be working with the vaccine? How did he even know about the formulas and when they were going to arrive? It was possible that he was part of the the team that had worked on the formulas, but Gavin didn’t seem like the scientific type and he hadn’t brought anything up about it.  
The man shrugged, deciding that he had more important things to work on and think about.


	4. Chapter 4

When Gavin woke up in the morning, Sam was bubbly and excited, reaching eagerly for his breakfast that the nurse was trying to set in front of him. Seeing that he was awake, she went back out to the hallway and brought out his, smiling as she left.  
“How’d you sleep, Sammy?” he asked the boy as he tested how stale the toast was and whether it was edible or not.  
“Pretty good. It didn’t sound like you did, though; when I woke up, you were groaning over something. I guessed it was your stomach or something.”  
“Yeah, maybe.” Gavin thought about the burning sensation from the night before and before he could start to get worried, Sammy was grinning and catapulting soggy cereal with his plastic spoon. “Hey, careful where you’re chucking that!” He wasn’t planning on eating it anyway, so he started to throw it back, laughing. Eventually, though, he stopped that and started eating the other food on the platter; his stomach felt literally empty, a weird feeling. It was like it was past the hungry, rumbly stage and was into the empty, ‘it’s not there’ phase.  
“Hey Gavin?” He looked up from his food. “Who was that guy who visited you yesterday? Is he coming back again today? I think he was nice; he made you smile.” Gavin blushed, looking back down at his plates.  
“His name’s Michael Jones, and he saved my life,” he said simply, smiling a bit as he reached for the teddy bear and sat it up beside him. “I hope he’ll come back to visit, he’s supposed to bring me food.”  
“Okay then.” And Sam left it at that, sipping his orange juice through a straw while he looked out the window into the bad weather of overcast clouds and soon to be rain. But Gavin kept thinking about the boy with ginger curls and the soft-looking mouth, feeling only slightly guilty about it.  
The doctor came in to check on them soon after, seeing the Brit first to see if his medication was working and whether he wanted anything stronger. When he shook his head, he went to go speak with Sam, looking decidedly more worried than he had been with Gavin.   
After learning that he had been placed in a traumatic ward, the man had wondered why this kid had been placed here; he seemed so happy, just like any other 9 year old that he had seen or met before. That was before he noticed the bruises covering the boy’s arms and the scar that ran down the far left side of his face, barely noticeable with his hair covering it.  
When Gavin asked about his parents, Sam shrugged and said,  
“I dunno.” After that conversation, his heart dropped drastically, daring to ask a nurse to see if what he assumed was right. He didn’t want to be right.  
Sam and his parents had been in a car crash outside of Austin as they were coming back from a holiday, just after his birthday. Both of his parents had died on impact, but Sam had somehow survived with head trauma and severe injuries. When they woke him up in hospital, he barely remembered anything about them and didn’t even want to ask. Gavin couldn’t imagine what that would be like, losing your memory and forgetting people important to you.  
The doctor left them alone again, the nurse coming in to take away their plates and bringing back some things that they had asked for yesterday; Sam got his colouring book and pencils while Gavin got his iPod and drawing pad.  
As the Brit started to listen to the music and sketch, he could have sworn that he heard the boy ask where his mom was, but maybe it was just background noise. Gavin drifted away from the real world.  
-  
Michael had visibly cringed when they had injected the first test formula into the large rat, Fluffy, he thought his name was. The others had put it down to him being an animal lover, but it was because he was afraid that the rat was going to turn into a fucking murder machine or something.  
Even after the initial 2 hours, the rat was still acting like a very well-fed and content rat as it lounged on it’s back in the glass cage. They ran a test on it, finding that the cancerous tissue had been overrun by other DNA cells, knitting it together in a type of cocoon that changed the code. Michael as well as all the others were extremely surprised by it’s healing qualities and the technique in which it did it; why hadn’t other people thought of the DNA cocoon beforehand?  
The one other formula that they had to test failed miserably, removing the cancer over the course of an hour but leaving traces that eventually allowed the cancer to return. The scientist was in awe of this new vaccine, astounded as to why Gavin seemed so insistent that it was wrong. It had autonomously done it’s job in record time and it worked. This would be a breakthrough for everyone in the world, not just the scientific and medical sense. Cancer could be cured, and it could be cured now.  
Once Burnie heard the news, he was ecstatic, He didn’t even seem to care that they needed to run more tests, he just insisted that they get human patients in there as soon as possible to run the diagnostics. Hell, he wasn’t even bothered by the fact that there could be side-effects.  
Because of all the hubbub with the vaccine and all of the other work loaded projects that he had to help with, he ended up leaving later than he should have; his phone said 6, meaning that he would have an hour and a half to get there and visit Gavin, maybe less depending on the visiting hours. He could try to pass off as a family friend, or the only family that the Brit had, but he doubted that would work.  
He called a taxi and started towards the hospital, constantly checking the time and worrying over whether he would get there in time. His palms were beginning to get sweaty and he started to nervously tap out a rhythm on his leg to keep time with his breathing. When he arrived, he fumbled with the door handle after paying the taxi driver and finally managed to get out onto the pavement.  
The receptionist, luckily a different one than the morning before, smiled at him and said that he had until 8 to finish his visit. He thanked her and headed for Ward C, not rushing so much anymore now that he knew that he had some time.  
Michael quietly entered the room as he saw that Sam was already asleep on his side of the room, mouth agape as he snored. Gavin, however, was engrossed in his drawing, headphone cords trailing down the front of his hospital gown. The scientist smiled, closing the door behind him with a click.  
“Hey Gav, you holding up okay?” he asked as he walked towards the uncomfortable chair, giving the man a surprise.  
“Oh, I thought that you weren’t going to come,” Gavin sighed as he pulled out his headphones, smiling with his teeth. “I’m glad you did.”  
“Yeah, me too. Oh yeah, I brought you something from the cafe at work; sorry that they didn’t have anything else, I thought that you might like it anyway.” He pulled a salad box out of his backpack and handed it to the Brit, watching his eyes light up.  
“Great! I don’t have to eat this hospital junk now.” Gavin put it on his bedside table and reached out to Michael expectantly. “Now you’ve saved my life for a second time.” The scientist wasn’t as hesitant to hug him this time, not leaving his seat as he put an arm around the Brit’s shoulder and patted him on the back.  
“Nah, it’s no biggie. What were you drawing, anyway?” The man blushed and closed the sketchpad quickly, sliding it down the side of his bed while he tried to cover his face with a grin. “Oh, okay then.”  
“It was nothing, really. How was work? Did you manage to stop testing?” Michael shook his head, reaching up his sleeve to get the research paper and give it to him.  
“You never told me what it was called, but I supposed that it was the one that worked consistently on 4 different animal types and cured them of cancer.” Gavin’s eyes widened as he stared at the page.  
“But this is the same one that my group worked on; I was sure that there was a flaw in it, somewhere…” He gave it back, brow furrowed. “I don’t know, I just have this gut feeling that it isn’t right.”  
“If you had a working gut,” joked Michael, making him giggle a bit. “Look, I’m sure that it’s something else that gave you a bad feeling. don’t worry about it.”  
“I don’t know…” They sat there and thought about it for a while, the scientist looking over at the boy sleeping his bed while they did so. “Tell me more about yourself, Michael.” The name triggered the dream from last night, making him turn beet red from embarrassment and guilt, and he choked on his words.  
“W-what do you want to know?” he finally managed to get out.  
“Everything. Start with your interests, maybe.” Michael tried to think of something to say, racking his brain for something, anything.   
“I collect old cassette tapes at the moment, I got into it when one of my friends took me to a thrift store and I found them. Hell, I don’t even know why I like them, but I do.” Once he said that, he started balling more things to it, not noticing the awed look on Gavin’s face as he talked about the things that he was obsessed with. After he was finished, Gavin immediately started talking about himself, and the scientist sat there enthralled as he listened to him talk in his accent and gesture wildly. They were careful not to speak too loudly, though, in case Sam woke up, but they managed to share some laughs between the looks and words.  
A nurse came into the room sooner than Michael expected, telling him that visiting times were over and that he was going to have to come back tomorrow. He left reluctantly, after shaking Gavin’s hand and saying goodbye, headed for home.  
The smile pasted on his face refused to leave, it was still there when he arrived home and dropped his things onto the floor. The plush carpet comforted his sore feet, and he wandered into the kitchen to heat up some leftovers. As he burnt himself getting it out of the microwave, Michael swore, realizing that he hadn’t sworn so much around Gavin. God, everything seemed to be better when he was around the Brit. He was so stupid, with the things he thought were true and his idiotic opinions, but somehow it was adorable.  
He paused with his fork halfway to his mouth; had he just called Gavin adorable? He felt the heat rising in his stomach again, and he dropped the utensil back into the tray. He really needed to stop thinking things like that, Gav probably wasn’t even gay. He wasn’t even gay, he had been 100% straight when he’d met the man; well, not 100%, but still, majority ruled that he was straight. But there was something about Gavin that made him all gross on the inside, and the dream was just there to reinforce that.  
Michael really liked Gavin Free and he wasn’t going to get over it anytime soon.


	5. Chapter 5

Over the next couple of days, interest and research into the new cancer vaccine was spreading over the whole company and people were starting to come into the underground facilities to have a look around. It made Michael uncomfortable with all the new people peering over his shoulder as he worked, and he was close to lashing out at one of the people who dared to pick up his work as he was writing and started to read it. He snatched it back from them angrily, glaring at the person over his glasses before turning back to his desk and going back to work. Needless to say, they left soon after that.  
Burnie was more than excited about this, happily letting these assholes wander around the lab and even in the animal room to mess about with all their meticulous equipment. Maybe the vaccine was something personal to him, or he was going to get a promotion if this all worked out for him; Michael honestly couldn’t give a shit, he just wanted to get on with his research without some dickhead asking stupid questions about fucking everything.  
“Calm down, Michael. They’ll be out of here soon, and we can get on with it.” Jack tried to talk him out of his raging fits, but the scientist was beginning to get really fucking mad. The fact that someone decided to pick up one Miles and Brandon’s vaccine phials and toy with it while they were away was the last straw.  
“THAT’S IT. GET THE FUCK OUT, ASSHOLES, THIS ISN’T A PLAYGROUND FOR YOU TO HAVE YOUR WAY WITH LIKE DIRTY HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS. GET YOUR SMUDGY, DIRTY FINGERS THE FUCK OUT OF HERE. GET OUT, GET OUT, GET OUT!” Everyone was out of there in the blink of an eye, one of the girls even burst into tears as she left. Michael’s chest was still heaving when his boss came running into the room, fuming.  
“What was that about!?”  
“They were messing around with the experiments! Do you want them to die in the name of science because you just want this stupid vaccine to work? We can’t work with all this fucking people messing up our shit!” Burnie’s face clouded over, his eyes growing darker and darker as Michael went on.  
“Fine. If it’s so important to you, then you can work overtime tonight to get it ready for human patients tomorrow. If you don’t, you’re fired.” He left, slamming the door behind him.  
“Don’t even worry about it, man,” Ryan piped up from the back of the room. “We’ll help you with it, if you need help.”  
“Yeah, thanks for getting the dicks outta here,” added Miles, coming back from the animal enclosures with an armful of boxes. “Couldn’t concentrate with all of them crowding around.” Michael shook his head.  
“It’s fine, guys. I’ll get it done by myself, it was my fault for snapping at them.” They tried to talk him out of that, but he didn’t listen to them and started, with a heavy heart, the now imminent work load ahead of him.  
He slogged through some of it in the morning, taking a late lunch break so as to avoid the people that he had yelled at earlier, and then continued his work well into the afternoon. The hours started to drag on, and Michael realized that he wasn’t going to finish before 8 if he was going to help the others with their projects. He couldn’t exactly leave them high and dry, could he? Not when it was his job.  
8 pm came and went, most of the others had left by now; Ryan decided to stay behind and help him with the last few tests that he had to run, which the scientist was thankful for. Finally, it was 2 and everything was done. Every single variable that could be tested had been tested, and Michael felt like he had been hung out to dry for too long in the sun; all of the energy was drained from him and he was walking dead on his feet, surprised that he was on his feet still.  
Ryan gave him a ride home, insisting that it was dangerous for him to walk by himself at this time of night, especially when he was overworked and tired. Michael thanked him vigorously once he got home, saying that he owed him one.  
When he got into his apartment, he collapsed onto his bed and let out a long groan into the blankets. His eyes closed and he felt so much better already.  
-  
“You’ve got hickey marks,” giggled Gavin, caressing his neck gently.  
“Your face is a hickey,” he retorted with a grin, liking the feel of the Brit’s fingers over the bruised skin. “You should be upset with yourself over them, now I’ll have to wear a skivvy to work.”  
“You should display them for everyone to see, then they’ll know that you’re mine,” the man purred, pinching the skin lightly to send a shock through him.  
“Yeah, right, like I’d do that. Too many questions and I just wanna get my work down.”  
“You’ve always been straight to the point, haven’t you, Michael?” Gavin kissed the marks on his neck, running his tongue over them briefly.  
“Say my name again,” the scientist pleaded, making puppy dog eyes at the man to convince him. His tongue made the syllables of his name run off so easily, it was the air that rushed through a canyon, barely a whisper.  
“I’d do anything for you, Michael.”  
“I know, Gav. And I’d do the same for you.” Michael pulled him into a soft kiss that had them grinning and reaching for more.  
He decided to himself that morning sex was the best sex.  
-  
He woke up with a gasp, face smothered by the sheets that he was curled up to. Had he dreamed that he had almost slept with Gavin? This was really beginning to get out of hand, he was feeling like a teenage boy all over again, awkward and getting boners over everything. He was so confused. What the fuck made Gavin Free the hottest guy on the planet all of a sudden?  
Michael’s shower was completely cold that morning, washing off the dream like the dirt from his skin; he scrubbed at it till it turned red, wanting to get the feel of the Brit’s imaginary fingers off his body so that he couldn’t, wouldn’t, be distracted at work.  
Mocha Hut was wafting it’s usual coffee smell out into the public as he walked down the street, so he decided to stop in and grab his usual after missing out on it for a couple of days.  
“Dude, where’ve you been?” Lindsay was especially worried this morning, looking him over to see that he was okay. “I saw the whole thing with the guy in the ambulance. How’ve you been?” Michael shrugged.  
“I don’t know, I’ve just been really tired, I guess. “ He sighed. “Sorry if I’m not very talkative. There’s just been a lot of stuff on my plate lately, s’all.” She nodded understandingly and handed him his coffee.  
“Well, I’m always here if you need to talk, okay? That’s what friends are for.”  
“Thanks, Lindsay.” He gave her one of his biggest smiles in the past few days, genuinely feeling happier. “I’ll make sure to drop by and tell you all about sometime soon.” The scientist waved goodbye and headed for the company, sipping caffeine and becoming more energized as he walked. Even with his lack of sleep, he felt that today was going to be a better day, a nicer day. Burnie’s mood would have improved by now, the man found it difficult to stay angry for long amounts of time.  
Upon arriving at the building, he saw that some ambulances were just arriving, pulling into the parking lot. Gavin ran through his mind first of all, but then he remembered that the patient testing was going on today, and his hunched shoulders lowered.  
Joel wasn’t in today, he noticed as he entered the labs; he guessed that’d he’d be having a day off for something personal, not really any of his business. And, for the first time in a long while, almost everyone was in the lab before him, waiting eagerly for his arrival and Burnie’s.  
“I can’t believe you got it done in time, you are a ma-chine!” Jack exclaimed, pulling him into a bear hug suddenly as he walked into the room. Michael muffedly said for him to let go.  
“Ryan helped, it wasn’t all me. Where is he?” Jack shrugged, leaning against his desk. “Right, he might just show up late to make an entrance. What about Burnie?” He shrugged again. “Well, shit.”  
“Don’t worry about it, they’ll be here in time for the testing. God, this is huge. Can you imagine if we were responsible for curing cancer, Michael? Think about it. Curing cancer.” Jack was especially excited about it, his inner self shining through as he began to blather on. Michael ended up tuning him out and nodded occasionally while he looked through everyone’s faces.  
The cancer patients showed up with their caretakers as well as Burnie and Ryan in tow, the whole room sighing in relief.  
“This man here is the one who prepared it all for us; he didn’t personally create the formula, but he was the one who made it into a vaccine.” His boss introduced him and Michael shook their hands as his guts fell through the floor, putting on a nervous smile to make them feel better.  
“Michael Jones, nice to meet you.” The two patients they had brought in were a middle-aged woman named Joanna and a older teenage boy called Dan. Both appeared to be in the later stages of cancer, their hair having fallen out and with the tired marks around their eyes that identified most patients. “We’re not doing testing in here, this is just our usual workplace. The real magic is going to happen through here.” He gathered up the phials and carried them back into the hallway and led everyone down the hall to the proper testing room; it was nothing fancy, just a classic room with the behind the scenes medical equipment and then the actual room where there were a couple of hospital beds as well as some scientific chairs. “I’d like the two of you to sit in those chairs for now, while the others get everything together.” The cancer patients and their caretakers were walked into the room by Burnie, the door closing behind them and Michael letting out a big huff of air as he leant against the wall. “Shit guys, how am I going to do this? It’s way too much responsibility.” Miles patted him on the shoulder.  
“Me and Brandon will actually inject the doses, you can get them ready. The rest of these guys can just stand back and get out of the way, right?” They nodded and moved. “Alright then, let’s do this.” After getting everything together and double-checking, he handed them the syringes and watched through the one-way mirror. Everything was fine, he decided, watching them inject the vaccine under standard procedures, but he felt unnatural being on the other side of the glass. He decided to step into the room with the others.  
The patients smiled nervously at him, leaning back in the chairs as the second syringe was applied to their other arm. Something seemed off, though. They were too docile, swinging their legs cheerily as needles were stabbed into them. They should be worried and unhappy and in minor pain, not grinning like morons.  
The warning shout from one of the caretakers hit him first as his patient, Dan, leapt up from his chair and towards Michael. His hands clamped like vices onto his shoulders, pushing him up against the wall as it tried to bite into his neck. He shoved at it, raising a hand to punch it in the face. Dan didn’t even flinch after the blow, instead biting into his exposed forearm; he screamed bloody murder, kicking it in the gut and reaching for whatever tool he could find on the medical, anything. Grabbing something sharp, Michael swiped it towards Dan’s head and hissed when it found it’s mark.  
Dan fell limp almost instantly, the scientist letting go of the syringe that had gouged straight through it’s eye into the brain. He backed away, stumbling into the table and falling over, cradling his bleeding arm as he looked at the dead body. How had it gone so wrong? He was supposed to cure cancer, be the face of the new scientific age, a model to all young students.  
Burnie ran up to him first, picking him up off the floor and guiding him out of the room, heading for the elevator and the ambulances. He was numb, completely numb, there were no words that he could form that would make it better. He had blood on his hands and only some of it was his.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it took so long to get this next chapter out! I've been a little busy lately is all ^_^

Gavin had felt more than a little dejected when his new friend hadn’t shown up for his daily visit, and Sam had picked up on that, though he didn’t mention it. For a 9 year old, he was wise for his age. He had lain there patiently, looking out to the downpour outside and waiting. Waiting. Waiting.  
And Michael hadn’t shown up. At first the man had thought that he was just cutting it close because he had to pick something up, but when the clock said 8, he realized that the scientist had forgotten him.   
He tore the drawing of Michael out of his book and scrunched it up, throwing it to the bin as tears welled up in his eyes. He shoved the teddy bear off his bed onto the floor as he lay down and curled up into a ball, trying not to cry.  
Sam still didn’t say anything to him. Smart kid.  
-  
The next morning, he only felt slightly better, the burning sensation returning just before breakfast to turn off his appetite. The porridge looked like squashed snails mixed with vomit, making him pale with disgust and he shoved it away. He folded his arms and looked out the window, seeing that it was going to be a sunny day for once.  
Gavin picked up the teddy bear from the floor, hugging it just as much as he wanted to tear it up. There was nothing that could make him feel better right now.  
He really did enjoy Michael’s visits, and the other night when they’d talked endlessly about themselves had felt… different. The scientist was a beautiful human being, and Gavin was never going to get over it.  
An hour later and his doctor showed up to see how he was. He took some time to talk to the man after he saw that he was upset, trying to be quiet so that Sam didn’t hear. But halfway through a sentence, the doctor’s pocket beeped loudly. He held up a hand and excused himself, pulling out what must have been his work phone.  
His ears pricked up when he heard the name ‘Michael’ and the words ‘bite’ and ‘unusual injury’. Michael was in the hospital? His Michael? It was a long stretch, but the unusual injury sounded a lot like side effects of the vaccine being used on someone else. The doctor came back and said that he would have to come back later, that there was a special case coming in. Gavin nodded, though he couldn’t keep in his curiosity.  
“Is it the Michael that is my friend?” he blurted out. The doctor shrugged, saying that he didn’t know any of the details before leaving. He had a feeling that it was his Michael, though, and he hugged the teddy bear harder. He had to find him and get him out of here, if he had bitten by someone subjected to the mutated vaccine. It might just take a while, that was all.  
-  
He was in the hospital, he knew that much. He lifted his arm, checking that it was still there after the incident; it was, though it was bandaged now and felt a bit more numb than beforehand. He was alone in the room.   
Michael checked and saw that he was lying on top of a hospital bed, the blankets itching against his slightly exposed lower back. He shifted into a more comfortable position, sighing. Why did he have to be in a hospital, of all places? The room smelt like bad soap and porridge. Gross.  
As he was peaceably lying there, a fully dressed Gavin ambled into his room, acting as quiet and casual as he could. Michael wasn’t even that bothered by it, just relaxing as he was.   
“Oh, hey Gavin.” He greeted the man with a wave from his uninjured arm, dropping it back onto the blankets like it was lead. Now that he thought about it, most of him felt heavy and weighed down. They must have given him pain killers or something.  
“Sh!” Gavin shushed him, making the scientist make a pouting face. “C’mon, we have to get out of this place.”  
“Why? Is it because it smells bad here? Yeah, I wanna leave.” The Brit squinted at him as he helped him onto his feet off the bed.   
“What did they give you?” Michael shrugged, pointing at his arm while smiling. “They gave it to you for your arm?” He nodded eagerly, happy that the man had understood him. “Right, we’ve really got to get you out of here.”  
Luckily, Michael was still dressed in his normal clothes, allowing Gavin to ease him down the hallways towards the parking lot while he leant on the recent patient. The scientist grinned at the nurses that passed by and said hello, but Gavin shushed him again. Asshole.  
After rushing both of them outside, the man called a taxi for them both, whispering to Michael to tell the taxi driver his address. He did so, glad to do what the man with the pretty accent said. Michael also ended up paying for the fare, but he didn’t mind. Gavin asked him to help lead the way to his apartment, which the scientist did with his help, getting up the stairs and into the lift.  
Finally, they were home.  
-  
Gavin watched the man on the couch nervously, biting his fingernails while he watched him sleeping, chest rising and falling at a steady pace; Michael had been extremely spaced out on the trip back to his apartment, making him wonder if they had overdosed him with something. He wasn’t going to die, no, but it would take a bit for him to sleep off the effects.  
He started looking around the place, curious as to the place that his Michael called home and came back to every day and night. There was tea in the cupboards, a big surprise, and a kettle. There were a couple My Little Pony figurines hanging about as well; he didn’t like them because it felt like their eyes were following every move he made. Too weird.   
Michael’s bed looked like it would be heaven to sleep it; it was waist-high on Gavin, and had the fluffiest pillows that he had ever seen. He ran his hand along the blankets, but did nothing else to it. He had a look in his wardrobe, surprised that it was organised so well; not like a pattern to colour ratio sort of organisation, more of the ‘these are pants and these are boxers, they are different things’ organisation. He peeked into the bathroom, admiring it before heading back into the lounge.  
Gavin started to make himself a cup of tea with the kettle, yawning as he started to look for some biscuits. Afterwards, he sat in a leather armchair and pulled his legs up onto it, curling his hands around the warm mug of tea and pulling a chocolate biscuit out of the bag. He dipped it in and pulled it out right before it went soggy; perfect timing.  
He did this for a while, sipping the hot drink occasionally, until he finally began to grow tired as well and put it down on the coffee table. He curled up against the back of the chair, murmuring something about fluffy pillows before falling asleep.  
-  
How was it that Gavin knew every inch of his body perfectly,that he remembered the soft spots and pleasure points so well that Michael would become a quivering mess within seconds? And why was it that Gavin would always have such a look of interest and awe on his face when he touched him in this way, when he became dominant and teased him?  
Michael could barely do anything to him, and yet Gavin enjoyed it just as much as he did, moaning in the right way and twisting and being just uncontrollable. Gavin was a stick of dynamite waiting to explode, and Michael was his fuse, counting down until the time that they could do it again.  
He loved the way that the man would run his hands over him to explore and would yet seem so innocent doing so, as if he couldn’t remember what he had done the night before, or the night before that.  
And Gavin’s body was something that he could easily die for, too. Where the man looked good with his clothes on, he looked even better without any. He had a couple of dark freckles, and his lower back had dimples as if it was smiling, just like Gavin always was.  
Even if he loved the sex, he loved the time afterwards when the Brit would fall asleep and he could stay awake to watch him mutter, toss and turn. Even in his sleep, the man was beautiful.  
Gavin Free was his and he didn’t want that to change.  
-  
Another dream, he sleepily thought to himself when he woke up, opening one eye before opening the other. Gavin was asleep on the armchair, face smushed up against the leather so that his mouth hung open. Michael grinned a bit and sat up, yawning. He hadn’t been asleep that long, or at least he hoped he hadn’t been. There was a mug of half-drunk tea with biscuit crumbs swimming in it chilling on the table, which he took into the kitchen to tip into the sink.  
As much as he wanted to let the Brit sleep, he knew that Gavin must have dragged him out of the hospital for some reason. He shook the man awake.  
He woke with a shock, sweeping one of his arms out in a protective arc.  
“What, who’s there?!”  
“Calm down, Gav, just me.” He sighed in relief. “What are we doing back at my apartment and not in the hospital?”  
“Well…” Gavin stopped talking, stretching his arms above his head and moaning as his bones clicked into place and his muscles loosened; Michael tried to pretend that he didn’t notice every detail and contour of the stretch. “When I found out that you were in the hospital, I figured that now was as good a time as ever to get out of there.”  
“But why?” he persisted with the question.  
“Because you were bitten, and I thought it was one of the cancer patients that did it to you. It was a lucky guess.”  
“Bullshit it was a lucky guess! You knew all along that that was going to happen if the vaccine got proofed and passed into service!” The man looked genuinely scared as he raised his voice, so he tried to lower it. “Why didn’t you tell me?”  
“I didn’t know if it was going to happen. After you said that the animals were fine with it, I assumed that I had been wrong and that it would be safe.”  
“But it wasn’t! And goddammit, it’s all around the globe now and people have got to be turning everywhere.” The scientist paused. “Why did it want to bite me?”  
“It’s basically just a zombie, but as well as eating your brains, it wants to eat every single other part of your body; like a cannibal, but with low IQ.” Michael sighed, dropping his head into his hands.  
“Does that mean that-”  
“Yes, Michael.” He didn’t want to say anything, he just wanted to sit there forever and never change, stand still in time. He couldn’t do it. He wouldn’t do it.   
“I don’t want to do it.”  
“I know. There might be a chance of us finding you a cure, at the old research center where I used to work. That’s the only hope that we have right now.”  
“Then let’s go now.” The scientist went to stand up but Gavin pulled him back down to sit.  
“It isn’t that simple. Within a couple of days, that mutation is going to be passed onto most people in Austin and God, everywhere else in this damn country. It wouldn’t be safe to-”  
“I’m going to eat people if I don’t get that cure, Gavin,” he interrupted with pleading eyes. “I need that cure.” Gavin looked at his feet and didn’t say anything. What was there to say in this situation?  
“Fine. Just… promise not to leave me behind, okay?”  
“Yeah, I promise.” He pinky swore on it, crossing pinkies with the Brit. “Let’s get everything together so that we can get on the road.” The man agreed with him.


End file.
